SIMI man arrested for joining terror training

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested an alleged Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operative Abdul Sathar alias Manzoor on the charges of participating in a SIMI training camp in Vagamon of Kerala.

“Sathar was arrested on Friday night and produced before a court in the national capital. We have taken him on transit remand and he will be produced before the designated court in Kerala where the trial of rest of the accused in the case is going on,” said a senior official of the NIA requesting anonymity.

Sources said Sathar was arrested in a middle-eastern country on the charges of violation of visa norms and sent back to India as an Interpol notice was pending against him. After he landed in Delhi, the NIA officials arrested him.

“We will check his role in other terror cases, especially in the Chinnaswami stadium blasts of April 2010. But so far he has been booked only in the case related to the Vagamon training camp,” said a source.

In the Vagamon case, Sathar was declared as a proclaimed offender by the court. During the investigation, the NIA identified 38 accused who participated in the camp organised by the hardcore faction of SIMI led by Safdar Nagori in December 2007. The NIA has, so far, managed to arrest 35 accused persons in the case.